Solace Through Darkness
by trainlindz
Summary: Sometimes you have to take the road less travelled. Breaking Dawn spoilers. Jasper/Alice


_Can't see can't see can't see can't see can't see…_

Alice repeats this internal mantra as she leads Jasper from the living room and out the back of the house, only stopping briefly to grab her purse by the door. She knows that he's confused, but he won't question her ways. He never does; trusting in her blindly. She's going to put that faith to the test this time.

_Can't see can't see can't see can't see can't see…_

As soon as their feet hit the grass outside, she grabs his hand in hers and takes off deep into the forest. Side by side they race, dodging trees in the growing darkness. Jasper keeps looking over at her, saying nothing but she can feel the silent question burning. She shakes her head minutely and he turns away back into his own thoughts. She doesn't have an answer - not exactly. It's difficult to get directions to a place you can't see or pin down on a map.

When they are ten miles from the house she stops dead in her tracks, Jasper slowing to her side. He raises his hand to her face, cradling it softly and she feels the tension float away and she lets her repetitive chant slip away. Alice closes her eyes and tries to revisit what she had seen at the house. The flashes are quicker and less coherent, but she is confident that they are trying to send her on a correct and intended path. All she had to do was decipher it.

She's had visions like this before. Her meeting of Jasper, their finding of their family; both had come in such a manner. The purpose was clear, but direction and timeline blurry. Even then, she had been given a firm destination in mind. This was more then nothing. It was path of nothing leading her into nowhere.

Her main concern was time. She had waited months for Jasper to appear in the diner, and it took them two solid years together to sort out where Carlisle and the rest of the family were. She didn't have that luxury this time. It was one month minimum that she had to follow her one lead, grasping onto their last chance. And no one could know where they were going. That much she had seen. Aro couldn't know anything, so no one could be made aware in the slightest what she was going to try to do.

No one but Bella at least.

Bella was going to do anything to protect her child. Alice needed a backup plan, in case something went wrong, in case they arrived back even an hour too late and everything that had worked so hard to build had been destroyed. Their family all couldn't die thinking that they had been abandoned. She had to give her sister some sign, some form of… hope.

"Wait here."

Alice darts back into the trees, cutting a new path looping back towards the house. She needs to do something to give Bella a sign to let her know that…

_Can't see can't see can't see can't see can't see…_

She enters the small stone cottage and immediately her eyes fall on the table covered with books. The worn and well loved spines of Bella's classics are staring back at Alice and she laughs silently at The Merchant of Venice; of course it is the obvious choice for leaving hints. Nessie and Jacob have Jessica and Lorenzo practically etched across their foreheads – fleeing to live their lives as they see fit, taking the family fortune with them, regardless of tradition and expectations. Alice can't help but hope Demitri will be blocked by hybrids the same way she was – she can't tell. There are too many interfering factors, and as he hasn't decided to look for someone he didn't know existed, she has no way of knowing.

Alice jots down Jenks' address and instructions into the book, wishing that she could leave more for Bella, but she can't risk anyone else working out the details and Bella really is a terrible actress. She wants to be able to offer words of encouragement, a hint that she'll be returning, though every moment she delays, she knows that Edward has the chance to hear her, getting wind of what she is about to do. She scribbles down their parting message to Carlisle on the first page, hoping it will be hint enough for Bella and rips it out to take it with her, back into the darkness and back to Jasper, still waiting for her.

His face brightens up as he sees her approach, a guiding beacon. Her light within the gloom. He steps towards her as she grows closer, and reaches out to take her hand in his. Alice pulls herself into his arms and stares up into his piercing eyes and they hold her there more then hands or words ever could.

His lips barely move as he murmurs, "We're not going back." It's not a question. He already knows; he always does. Alice shakes her head unnecessarily and Jasper nods softly in return and their presence in the forest becomes overwhelming, while the full impact of what they are about to do hits him. "Will we ever?" His question weighs heavily on her heart. Humans had a saying that they couldn't pick their families, but they had defied tradition. They had chosen the Cullens, and now here they were walking away from it.

"I can't see it. I hope so. I miss them already." She sighs. Here is one more person that she has the opportunity to protect by keeping him the dark. Could she really stand to part herself from him? When the witnesses start arriving, Jasper would be useful to have at the house. However, this one she'll give the choice. He could choose to spend his time with the family she wishes she didn't have to leave, "I have looked ahead though, mapped out your paths. You can stay here if you want. It won't change any outcomes. For some reason, you make it out unscathed while the others do not. You'd see me again in the future. We always re-meet." She hates lying to Jasper, but she has to do what she always does, give him that glimmer of hope that everything will work out.

"Nice try, Alice" chuckles Jasper darkly. He raises their still joined hands up to his lips and kisses her fingertips gently still keeping his eyes locked on hers, "We both know that without you, I don't have a future. Where you go, I go. Always."

Despite it all, a smile creeps up onto her face, "I knew you'd say that." Alice rises up onto her toes and feels Jasper's lips meet hers halfway. "Let's go save the day."

She still can't see, but as long as she has her compass with her she can't help but hope for the best.

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_Thanks for reading - reviewers get much love :)_


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